Yesterday, I read a post by another blogger about her efforts to get her son, whose twin sister has been potty trained for a while now, to make it dry through the night. I'm not sure how old her son is, but since this is something we've tried and failed with Oliver, I read the post and the comments with great attention. I then ordered a few cloth training pants for Emmeline, who will remove the cloth diapers (that have snaps on them) and only wants to wear Pull-ups, which are both expensive and wasteful. I also devised a scheme, which I have now undertaken.
Last night at dinner, I told Oliver he was going to bed in underwear. "Why?" he asked. A sentiment that Wes quickly echoed.
"Because you're a big boy," I said. "And big boys go to sleep in their undies and then wake up when they need to go pee." For the rest of the evening, I talked with him about how we would go potty right before bed, then again right before I went to bed, and then how if he woke up and needed to pee he would jump up and get on the potty, or if he had an accident, yell for mommy to come and help him. I thought it was worth a few days of laundry to give this an honest effort.
So he peed when we got on pajamas around 7:30. He peed again when he went to bed a little after 8. I took him, successfully, around 11:30 when Wes and I went to bed. And then, this morning, Wes jumped up out of bed at 5:30 and went upstairs, where Oliver was on the toilet and very proud of himself. "Guess what, dad? I went to sleep in my undies and I am all dry." Wes gave him a high five. Ollie peed, went back to bed, and less than twenty minutes later was yelling downstairs: "Hey guys, I pooped." (At what age my children will use the facilities without announcing it, I'm not sure, but I will throw a party at my house on that day.) I got up, gave him a high five, and helped him get cleaned up. Another twenty minutes later, he was calling down again. And then the whole house was up. (Which explains why, as I type this upstairs, I can hear him fussing at Wes over dinner.)
So one night dry. We'll see how it continues to go.
As for Emme, she spent the day in cloth training pants, underwear/diaper insert combos, and Pull-ups. I put her on the potty every 15-45 minutes, depending on whether she goes on the toilet, and we've even been recording when she's wet or goes on the toilet, in the hopes I can figure out when she normally needs to go. My mother-in-law spent the day with the kids while Wes and I were car shopping, and evidently Emme spent a decent part of the afternoon digesting the many blueberries she ate last night at dinner, mostly (but not completely) in the toilet.
So we're off and running -- small steps towards two in underwear, and one who does not require Cars-themed Pull-ups at night. Wish me luck!
